2025 NFL Draft: 3 issues to find out about Jack Kiser

Get to know the Jaguars’ new additions from draft weekend with our ‘3 issues to know’ collection

With the 2025 NFL Draft within the books, it’s time to mirror on how the Jacksonville Jaguars fared. Did rookie GM James Gladstone ship a masterclass, or has he simply set the Jags again 5 years? Fact is, we most likely received’t know that for a while. However we will get to know the most recent members of the staff just a little bit higher. Within the newest of our mini-series of deep dives, listed here are three issues to find out about Jack Kiser, LB, Notre Dame:

Agricultural Roots

A city with simply 797 inhabitants in accordance with the final rely, Royal Heart, Indiana is way from regal and isn’t significantly the centre of something. Adopting it’s title from a spot in New York, it got here to be in 1846 after a railroad was constructed by the territory, and is surrounded by farmland. That is the house of Jack Kiser, certainly one of 4 kids to oldsters Aaron and Deborah, who would go on to star for one of the vital prestigious soccer packages in America. However he had duties manner earlier than he placed on pads and a helmet.

The Kiser household have owned a farm on this distant a part of Indiana for generations. In actual fact, Jack may see his grandparents’ dwelling from the doorstep of the home he grew up in, proper throughout the cornfield. His grandma Frances nonetheless lives there to today. And as is frequent in agriculture, this was a household enterprise – and everybody was anticipated to contribute, irrespective of how large or small. That rule prolonged to Jack regardless of him being the youngest of the household, and is prone to have helped forge a robust work ethic that has served him nicely in soccer.

This serene model of dwelling has formed Kiser in different methods too. He didn’t have a telephone till he was 14 years previous, and even then needed to share it together with his older sister. His household and his associate Meagan describe him as ‘chilled’ and ‘goofy’, somebody who enjoys the outside for hikes as a lot as he enjoys films and board video games. The demeanor adjustments when he hits the gridiron, however the wristband he wears that claims ‘don’t do something silly’ on it can inform you that there’ll be no off-the-field drama from the Jaguars’ new linebacker.

Playmaking Potential

Tiny Pioneer Excessive Faculty was the place Jack Kiser made a reputation for himself on the soccer area. His father Aaron was the coach of the youth staff, and allowed Jack to coach with the third grade gamers regardless of being a yr youthful. Jack was allowed to coach and swimsuit up on gameday however not hit the sector, his father believing it was unfair for him to take gametime away from his older teammates. Regardless his friends and different coaches did handle to smuggle him into the rotation for one play within the ultimate recreation of the yr – and Jack duly made a sort out, laying the foundations for a robust profession.

Intriguingly, Kiser would predominantly play Quarterback and Security for the Panthers all through his time at highschool, amassing an unbelievable 3,771 passing yards, 59 passing TDs, 7,364 speeding yards and 139 speeding TDs on offense, and 424 tackles, 32 move breakups, 20.5 TFLs, 20 interceptions and 9 pressured fumbles on protection.

Kiser was considered a four-star prospect at linebacker, so a place change was all the time mooted for him earlier than he headed to varsity. We sadly by no means noticed him air it out at Notre Dame, however the ball expertise had been on present when he dropped into protection; Kiser had 4 interceptions for the Preventing Irish, returning two of them for touchdowns in his junior yr.

Cut up Loyalties

Each Indiana child’s dream is to move to South Bend and put on the well-known golden dome of Notre Dame. Simply over an hour north from Royal Heart, it was the apparent alternative for Jack Kiser, who acquired eleven scholarship affords to play school soccer. However not everybody on the Kiser farm would have been proud of that call, as simple because it was for the linebacker; seems one other D1 college, even nearer to dwelling, has a lot stronger ties to the household…

Kiser himself has admitted that he was raised in a Purdue family. Each his father and uncle attended the Lafayette college with scholarships as monitor and area athletes, in addition to quite a few different prolonged relations. The Boilermakers would possible have been assured of touchdown Kiser primarily based on his household custom, and was one of many colleges to supply him a scholarship. However it seems Jack wasn’t as fixated on the black and gold as perhaps they hoped. For most individuals selecting between Notre Dame and Purdue appears pretty simple. Loyalty can usually modify that perspective, however not in Kiser’s case – and the remainder, they are saying, was historical past.

Kiser wasn’t shy in sticking it to his household faculty both. Notre Dame confronted Purdue twice throughout his tenure there, profitable each video games by a bruising complete scoreline of 93-20. Jack performed his half too, with eight complete tackles and one move breakup throughout the 2 contests. Performances like these allowed him to go away South Bend as Notre Dame’s all-time main tackler. That ruthless streak will very a lot be welcomed by the Jaguars as they appear to bolster their linebacker corps.